A quick post to flesh out my 2023 business goals. The theme of 2023 is “treating myself like a business.” Overall this looks like getting my time management in a better place, becoming more efficient with certain tasks, and building tools to help me better find and serve clients.

I’ve divided my goals into three categories:

A revenue goal (easy enough, right?)
Tasks
Bigger, less task-y goals (still marks to hit but will take longer to know if I’m successful)

Revenue Goal

$15,000

This is $5K over last year’s goal. I definitely think this is achievable, and it’s not so stressful that I feel like I need to take on every single job opportunity just to hit the number.

That’s one complaint I had about this past year. I was gunning so hard for my monetary goal that I took on some projects I maybe should have said no to. (But then again, I reached my goal, so clearly I needed those jobs and maybe it was worth it?)

Tasks

Create a client intake form/questionnaire
This will basically be a form on my website that potential new clients can fill out. Currently, people fill out a basic contact form, and from there we have to do a lot of additional discussion just to make sure it’s a good fit for both parties. This new form will be a lot more detailed and will give me a better sense of clients’ project and expectations at the very beginning.
Build an email list
This is leftover from my 2022 goals, and honestly, I need to sit down for a few hours and get it done. Not a ton of excuses here. Mostly got caught up in how I would maintain the newsletter, and then would move on with my work and continue to ignore the need for an email list.
Add shipping to Etsy orders
Sorry, if you’ve ordered from my Etsy for the past two years and enjoyed free shipping. That day is over. Etsy takes such a large % of sales revenue from me, and their shipping fees are going up, so from a financial standpoint this is something I need to do.
Set time to batch process Etsy orders
Still in the Etsy category: I find myself immediately shifting into order mode when an order comes in, regardless of what I’m working on at the moment. Rather than interrupt my work and my day multiple times per week, I want to have set time once or twice a week to knock all of my Etsy orders out.

Bigger, Less Task-y Goals

Put in 10 hours per week on my business and client work (re-evaluate at the end of Q1)
As I look to earn more this coming year, and also figure out how to better balance my personal life with my side hustle, I want to experiment a little. I am hoping that 10 dedicated hours each week (spent on client work and/or work that builds up my business) will help me:
1. Feel more on top of content (which has always felt last-minute and rushed)
2. Do focused work when I am working, and
3. Fill my social calendar - aka have a life - when I’m NOT working (without guilt!)
Create a system/schedule for batching content
This is similar to the Etsy goal above, with the same idea in mind to be more efficient with my time around content creation. I want to carve out specific time each week to build out my editorial calendar, create content (graphics and captions) and get posts ready to launch.
Post work on other channels consistently
Dribbble for sure. Maybe Behance and/or LinkedIn? There’s a LOT to be said for diversifying where clients can find and follow you, so I’m going to really work on getting beyond only Instagram in the new year.